Vaccine passports are a grotesque invasion of our liberty
‘Vaccine passports may be sold to us as a short-term measure, but what stops them from becoming a long-term 'solution' to the yearly flu season?’
Cartoon by Crid.
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I, like many millions of others, received my vaccine recently. It was a quick and painless affair – a real testament to the NHS and to this Government's vaccination rollout.
The vaccination programme has now successfully advanced through all the nine priority groups, making up ninety-nine per cent of Covid deaths and hospitalisations. Take up has been remarkable.
Vaccines are our ticket to freedom. They provide us with the much-discussed herd immunity, allowing the lifting of all restrictions without any serious rise in hospitalisations or deaths.
The Government was clear about this in its initial communications. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, in an interview with The Spectator in January, said 'the vaccine is going to get us out of it'. If that wasn't emphatic enough, the Health Secretary further proclaimed that we would have a 'happy and free great British summer'.
So, what on earth is all this nonsense about vaccine passports? And where on earth is the Boris Johnson who, in 2004, said he would 'physically eat' any ID card he was asked to produce by 'whatever emanation of the state' demanded it?
It all started reasonably enough. When it became clear that other countries and some international travel companies would demand vaccine certificates from travellers, inevitably the Government had to begin exploring the possibility of providing such certification.
Then the mission creep began.
In truth, it is still not clear really what the Government is planning. Every day there is a new briefing to a different paper which claims that some form of vaccine passport, or 'Covid-status certificate', incorporating negative tests, vaccination status or antibody status, will be necessary.
Some reports claim they will 'just' be needed for large-scale events. Other reports claim they will be needed for indoor hospitality. At the most extreme, there are reports they will be needed to enter shops.
What is this dystopian monstrosity? This is a call for a biosecurity state, in which not just the Government, but private businesses large and small take a detailed interest in our personal health choices. It is a grotesque invasion on our personal liberty, after a year in which we have all sacrificed our most basic freedoms to protect others.
It is also demonstrably unnecessary, now that the vulnerable have been almost universally vaccinated. One has to wonder as to the aim of this policy. It surely can't be to protect the vulnerable, who have nearly all been vaccinated. For those in the vulnerable categories who have refused the vaccine, they have made a deliberate choice to take that risk.
If the aim is to reduce cases, then this is a largely pointless objective now that cases and hospitalisations/deaths have been decoupled. If the aim is to increase state control over the individual, then this is a sign of creeping state control over the individual, which must be opposed by all freedom-loving people.
Unfortunately, I have genuine concern about the extent of opposition in Westminster. There is no doubt that many of my colleagues on the Government benches oppose this hideous proposal. The Liberal Democrats have remembered belatedly that they are supposed to be a 'liberal' party and seem like they are joining us in opposition. Unfortunately, however, the Labour Party is flip flopping on the issue.
It is very difficult for the Government to give back powers it has acquired for itself. This is true of all governments. Vaccine passports may be sold to us as a short-term measure, but what stops them from becoming a long-term 'solution' to the yearly flu season? We could easily find ourselves years in the future still subject to these absurd checks.
This pandemic, at least in the United Kingdom, is now all but over. We have made it through to the other side. It is time for our freedoms to be restored in full. No ifs, no buts!
